56 for Mums

Why we're doing this

This October, the S2F team — along with our families, friends, and anyone who wants to join us — is taking on the 56 for Mums Challenge for Mummy's Wish.

This one is personal.

On our usual January family holiday, my wife Anna noticed something that seemed like nothing at all. Our GP wasn't especially concerned. A scan found what they expected, and then a second mass off to the side that nobody had been looking for. That one was invasive breast cancer.

The hardest part wasn't the treatment plan. It was telling the kids, one at a time, in three different ways, because what an eleven-year-old needs to hear and what a five-year-old needs to hear are not the same thing.

Anna had been given an information pack at the hospital, and among it was Mummy's Wish. She chose one of their packages: teddy bears you can record your own voice onto, and books written for children. After we'd told the kids, we gave them the bears and the books. One of them opened a book and started reading it aloud on the spot, to a younger sibling. Partway through, she stopped.

"Oh Mama, that's you."

That was the moment it stopped being frightening for them. It's why Anna chose Mummy's Wish, and it's why this challenge exists.

Anna is still in treatment. Mummy's Wish is still turning up for our kids.

The book and the bear in that story are on this page. $35 buys the book for another family. $75 buys the bear.

The numbers

Every day in Australia, around 56 people are diagnosed with breast cancer, and around nine lose their lives to it.

Inspired by that first number, we're covering 224 kilometres through October — about 56 a week, or 7 a day. It's meant to be hard. Some days will be easy and some won't, and that's exactly the point. We finish together with a final 9 km on Saturday 31 October, for the nine Australians we lose every day.

Where your money goes

Our goal is $5,600 for Mummy's Wish, who give mums in cancer treatment real, practical help: meals, cleaning, fuel and grocery vouchers, counselling, and comfort bears for their kids. Less time coping, more time being a mum.

They support mums with any type of cancer who have young children — so your donation helps mums facing every kind of cancer, not just breast cancer.

How you can help

Donate. Sponsor someone taking part. Spread the word. Or better still, join us — it's open to anyone, at 56formums.com.au.

Every kilometre creates awareness. Every dollar gives a mum facing cancer more support, more comfort, and more time with her family.

56 km a week. One month. One wish.

Let's do it for the mums.

Breast cancer doesn't always start with a lump. If something seems off, get it checked.

— Apostoli and Anna Holevas